maandag 15 juni 2015

Blogpost #2 PILOT/Episode1

Blogpost #2Played in Amsterdam
May 19th, 2015

PILOT/Episode1:

To start our new campaign: the Players decided
to play a band of gnomes bards (musicians) accompanied by their manager/roadie
(a halfling thief). I rolled on the magic item table in the Dungeon Master
Guide (DMG) to get them magic items. By chance (it was meant to be!) I rolled a
magic instrument for the bards (1 per person): a Doss Lute, which we promptly
changed into a Doss Flute, because they all decided to play the Pan Flute. And
for the thief, pardon, manager, I rolled a poncho (cloak) of
protection...really, how random is that?

Also what type of gnomes are they? Garden
gnomes? Forest gnomes (run Forest, run!) no: Rock Gnomes, it makes sense,
because they are a band , so they must rock....

Their band name is
: "Los Hermanos de Cojones Azul con Flauta de Pan" Their hits are:
"Juan day fly", "Rosita con frijoles negros", "Chico/Chico/
guacamole". All of which were sung at a very high pitch and at maximum
volume by Onno (from the school of overacting)..*Mental
note: next session must be played at somebody else's house (kids and neighbours
were not amused...).

It all begins when our fearless group of
adventurers play a last concert in the village they're in -Panchos- at the
Drooling Donkey Inn. They play all their hits while standing on a makeshift
podium (a bridge table); they are tiny gnomes after all. Quite a lot of folks
dig the show, also the 2 kids -boy and girl- (they're 35 years old, young for a
gnome -barely legal?) that have been following the band since the Hermanos (*a band of inbreds?) have left their hometown to tour
the wide wild world. The next day they leave Panchos to the Northwest. One day travel on the cart pulled by 2 donkeys (their
2 alpacas are in tow).

Arriving at Krostos, they talk to the town
guard at the gate about their business. He asks if they are, perchance, the Rolling Thunder?,-a mighty good percussion
band-, he is a bit disappointed that they are not, but recommends the "Gouden Beker"
(Golden Cup) as a good place (the best place in town!) they might be able to perform
at. The guard gets a free ticket (for his wife- Carmelita) for the show (free
ticket even if we’re not sure there will be a cover charge).

The other bars/inns
in town are (all those names were made on the fly, like almost anything in this
adventure, remember it’s “seat of the pants DMing”- and I’m not even wearing pants):
The Flying Donkey, The Starved Boar, The Creeping Caterpillar and the Silver
Scimitar. They can play at the Gouden Beker (although it's dice gaming night) (*weird
that an Inn has a Dutch name all of a sudden..Well, it’s magic, so there you
go)…The owner asks if they are, perchance, the Rolling Thunder?-a mighty good
percussion band- he is a bit disappointed that they are not…but they can play
nonetheless.

To advertise their pig, sorry: gig, they go
through town sticking posters on walls. They see posters for another band
playing tonight at the Silver Scimitar...The Silver Acrobats... those posters
are ripped from the walls and they use the back of those to advertise their own
show.

After that, Jorge
goes to the market to buy some new stones for his flintstones collection). 1
copper piece (cp) for 10. As he's interested in buying a new poncho, it so
happens that the grandma of the stones merchant makes clothing (2 market stalls
further). He's interested in a red one (*hmmm, the band’s uniform is green,
wtf?)....it will be ready tomorrow morning...(5cp paid up front). The show is
going strong in a full Gouden Beker (it is dice gaming night, so it makes
sense). Each bard give their own full 30 minutes Pan Flute solo... Suddenly a
giant shape blocks the door: a Cyclops wielding two huge clubs (clubs in a
club!) enters and shouts: who ripped my posters? (it's Ramon, the owner of the
Silver Scimitar!). The band keeps on playing while using a charm spell on
Ramon....it succeeds and Ramon digs the band for the next hour (after 1 hour
the spell will cease having effect, and our heroes all are very aware of that)
Jesse, goes through Ramon's purse (66cp). 2 bottles of the stronger rotgut
available are given to Ramon, he drinks them in 2 big gulps, and rocks to the
band ...the band announces an intermission and leaves surreptitiously…. ..The manager
(Jesse) had already "collected" some money from the crowd...They
leave to camp not too far from the village (there might be ghouls in the area).
Leaving the “groupies” behind

Next morning Jorge
becomes invisible and slips past the town guard to collect his red poncho.

He walks through
town and notices the ravage caused to the Gouden Beker, the both nice round
windows have been smashed…walking towards the Silver Scimitar he sees the huge
shape of Ramon sleeping and snoring in front of his bar…Jorge turns visible
again, gets his red poncho, turns invisible back again, and gets out of town…and
still no sign of the known gnome (try to say that fast) groupies.

The band leaves and
paces forward while the manager/roadie/ Halfling cooks makes meals while on the
cart. (breakfast, 2nd breakfast, brunch, lunch, second lunch, linner
–a lunch/dinner- 5 o’clock tea).

Then, just before
dinner, starved, they arrive at the next town: Ritorga.

They have to pay the
guard 10cp to enter (1 per person+ cart and animals), but it’s good for one
year. The guard asks if they are, perchance,
the Rolling Thunder?, -a mighty good
percussion band- he is a bit disappointed that they are not…

From now on our
heroes really get to hate the “Rolling Thunder” (* obviously a name made up on
the fly –seat of the pants DMing, without pants but with a fly..whaaat?- a mix
of Rolling Stones and Johnny Thunders, I guess is what I was aiming at, it
sounds good…but it just so happens – it dawned on me a few days later- that The
North Face is selling travel bags with wheels called, you guessed it, Rolling Thunder!
–... So made up or blatantly stolen? I do need a bag though...Roiling Thunder
could have been a good one too, too late).

3 inns in town:

The Slithering
Snake, de Griffioen (another Dutch name, magic, I tell you! Anything is
possible in a world full of magic, that’s the beauty of D&D), and the
Flying Escargot (*yes, made on the fly).

They go to the Flying
Escargot a Halfling run establishment. Really nice place, high ceiling, excellent
food –obviously- the band (are they the Rolling Thunder, perchance?) can play a
few evenings in a row in the nice (beer)garden.

Having had enough
already of the Rolling Thunder they called themselves "Los Hermanos de
Cojones Azul de Rolling Thunder con Flauta de Pan" or something like that…anyway
pretending to be the Rolling Thunder and attracting more audience…

Plenty Patatas are
eaten at the market place choice of gravy or ...gravy … What , no mayonnaise?
What is mayonais? asks the owner of the food cart. Jesse, the Halfling/ cook/
band manager/ thief/ bon vivant (Belgian accent), gives him the recipe, the
owner says he will try tomorrow.

They play an
awesome gig in the Flying Escargot’s garden…(*gnomes in a garden=garden gnomes,
no?)…

The whole
repertoire, including their trademark famous one note 30minutes solos, and a
new song about a Cyclops called Ramon…

They sell
merchandise (small gnomish made music boxes of their hits for 1 Gold piece
-1gp-, steep price, but good quality). And they realize they need ponchos to be
made to sell….

Oh, and they do
parties, weddings ad Bar-Mitzvahs too!

End of the pilot/
episode 1.

All in all, not
much in terms of combat, but in terms of role-playing, world building and
making a mess of things: it was a blast!!! Lots of laughs, lots of fun, that’s
what you really want from an evening D&Ding.

DM notes:

Technicality: A day after the game, I
noticed that the Charm Person spell couldn’t have been cast on a Cyclops. It can
only be cast on a humanoid type monster. A Cyclops, is a Giant type monster,
not a humanoid (bipedal, humanoid looking, but not the humanoid “tag” in its
stats line)…to charm a Giant you need the 8th level spell Dominate
Monster..so we retconned it by saying they had possession of a scroll with the
Dominate Monster spell, and used it to beguile the Cyclops…et voila!

Size does matter:

We played this
episode thinking of the Halfling as “the big guy”, compared to the gnomes..But reality
set in later in the week, when we read the description in the PHB (Player’s Handbook)

Gnomes are between
3 and 4 feet tall and about 40 pounds… (90 centimeters to 1, 20 meter and about
20 kilos)

Halflings are about
3 feet tall and about 40 pounds… (90 centimeters and about 20 kilos)

So now the gnomes
are the big guys! What do we make of it? Is Jesse a particularly HUGE Halfling?
Or are the gnomes very short??? We need to figure that next episode.

Adventures hooks/ possible scenarios:

-Will Ramon the
Cyclops seek revenge for the Dominate Monster spell?

-Will the owner of
the Gouden Beker seek to obtain material compensation for the damage caused to
his inn (maybe under the threat of physical harm)?

-Will they ever
meet the Rolling Thunder?...And will it be at a “Battle of the Bands” festival/brawl
type of thing?

-Will they ever encounter
Jorge Zamfir, the mysterious and elusive Master of The Flauta de Pan?

-What happened to
the 2 groupies/followers?

Money: In my campaign I adapted the
D&D monetary system to our real world currency to make it easier for me to estimate
the value of things:

1 copper piece
(cp)= 1€ or $1.

1 silver piece
(sp)= 10 cp= 10€ or $10

1 gold piece (gp)=
10 sp = 100€ or $100

1 platinum piece
(pp)= 10gp= 1000€ or $1000.

Languages:Languages are just
an excuse for using funny accents at the table. So taking Europe as a reference
for languages and D&D Character races: we came up with these:

Elves are French
(haughty and aloof). Dark Elves are Italian (think of the Borghias). Halfling
are Belgian,hey they love good food and are merry fellows! German/Scandinavian
for Dwarves.

Our heroes decided
to have Spanish accents anyway, so they are from a group of gnomes that travelled
settled elsewhere in the past…the players chose Spanish, because of the Peruvian
pan flute, and took it from there, flute, ponchos, accents, Spanish names,
patatas….